Albrecht von Arnim, a molecular biologist based in the Department of Biochemistry and Cellular and Molecular Biology, studied plants but said the concepts may well translate to humans<\/strong>.<\/p>\n His team examined how protein synthesis–the process that determines how organisms grow and how cells renew themselves–changes over the course of the daily day-night cycle. He also explored whether any such changes are controlled by the organism’s internal time keeper, the circadian clock.<\/p>\n Proteins are newly created in every cell by translating messages made from the cell’s own DNA, the genome<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Von Arnim’s findings, published in the journal Plant Cell<\/em>, show not only that protein synthesis activity changed over the course of the day, but also that it was under the influence of the circadian clock.<\/p>\n “When we misalign our behavior with our circadian clock, for example by creating jet lag, or by working as a night owl, we do not only disrupt normal physiological processes such as cycles of appetite and body temperature<\/strong>,” von Arnim said. “This work in plants suggests that we may also be interfering with a more fundamental cellular process, protein synthesis.”<\/p>\n Muscle action, brain activity, growth and development are functions all performed by proteins whose synthesis is carefully regulated<\/strong>, he said. “For example, when cells are stressed by high temperatures or from a virus infection, they drastically reduce their protein synthesis activity,” von Arnim said.<\/p>\n The findings could also have implications for agricultural production<\/strong> as farmers and companies seek to better cultivate land and maximize outputs from plants required to sustain human life.<\/p>\n “Protein synthesis is part of the basis for crop yield,” von Arnim said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From the University of Tennessee at Knoxville\u00a0media release: Lack of adequate sleep can do more than just make you tired. It can short-circuit your system and interfere with a fundamental… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[339,43],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18461"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18461"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18467,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18461\/revisions\/18467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"sleep](\"http:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/sleep-deprivation.jpg\")
<\/a>Lack of adequate sleep can do more than just make you tired. It can short-circuit your system and interfere with a fundamental cellular process that drives physical growth, physiological adaptation and even brain activity<\/strong>, according to a new study from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.<\/p>\n